Suspect in Ashtabula murder held in Pa.

Staff report

MERCER, Pa.

A suspect in the murder of a 13-year-old in Ashtabula is awaiting extradition back to Ohio in the Mercer County jail after a chase in Sharon on Thursday.

Although Ashtabula police Chief Robert Stell would not confirm the man’s identity, he did say warrants were issued for the man taken into custody Thursday, John Bove, 46.

Bove was arrested by borough police about 1 p.m. Thursday after a short chase. He is in the Mercer County jail on $1 million bond after being arraigned before a district justice on charges of fleeing and eluding, receiving stolen property and drug paraphernalia. Bove is a suspect in the murder of Kara Zdanczewski, 13, who was found in a field in Saybrook Township.

Stell said Ashtabula authorities received a tip that the suspect was in Sharon and he passed that information onto Sharon police, who spotted a car he was suspected to be driving.

According to The Vindicator news partner 21-WFMJ TV, an affidavit was filed by Sharon police in Mercer County District Court. It says a woman told Ashtabula police that Bove had visited her Stambaugh Avenue apartment in Sharon and told her that he had gone out with his friend’s 13-year-old daughter and “things went south.”

The woman says that Bove told her that he shot and killed the teen. She says Bove showed her the gun he said he used to shoot the girl. The woman says she took a picture of the gun that he had left on the night stand as he slept.

The information prompted Ashtabula police to ask authorities in Sharon to be on the lookout for a 1996 Toyota Camry that Bove had allegedly stolen in Ashtabula and had driven to Sharon, WFMJ reported.

Sharon police spotted the car Thursday and after a chase, apprehended Bove.

Ashtabula police say Zdanczewski was taken from her Ashtabula home on Tuesday by Bova at the suggestion of the girl’s parents, who didn’t want their daughter to see them fighting any more. Bove drove away with their daughter, and that’s the last time the parents saw her, the affidavit says.

Police filed charges of kidnapping and auto theft against Bove on Thursday, which is the same day the body of a young girl was found in Saybrook Township, which is between Ashtabula and Geneva on the Lake.